Stan Kroenke, owner of the Denver Nuggets, before Game 7 of the first round of the NBA playoffs on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Seems as if Stan Kroenke’s time as majority owner of the Arsenal football club in the United Kingdom is in some turmoil.

A blistering story[1] in London’s Daily Mail revealed a letter written to Kroenke from minority shareholders of the team, complaining of a “tight” financial atmosphere that has led to selling off of expensive players and cheap replacements.

Being the owner of a team isn’t easy. I mean, it’s easy in the sense that, hey, it’s yours, you can do what you want with it. But you’re always subject to rip jobs from fans and others for not spending enough money on players. I guess we’ve heard of similar complaints around here at Avalanche headquarters, have we not?

And yet, I’ve always been something of a Kroenke defender in this regard. The man doled out roughly $140 million in 2001 on just three players – Joe Sakic, Patrick Roy and Rob Blake – on one day. He spent big on free agents Ryan Smyth and Scott Hannan in 2007. He didn’t get any more Stanley Cups from any of those signings.

Yeah, the group bearing his name that continues to own the Avs haven’t had high payrolls the last few years, but we’ve seen this summer more money being spent and I don’t think it’s done spending yet. Still have Ryan O’Reilly and Jamie McGinn to sign, and there could be another signing or acquisition through trade of another quality player.

Could it be Alex Semin? Could be. I do think there is interest on behalf of the Avs, though the team won’t confirm that. There is still a lot of talking going on back and forth on the free-agent front. What shakes out from that, we still have to wait to find out.